At a time when so many people are moving online, Tinderbox wanted to turn to the Games industry for inspiration – to ask how games are adapting and responding to the pandemic, and to explore what role they could play looking ahead.

What are the most interesting ways of playing and interacting both online and offline at the moment? Are there possibilities for new connections, learning & collaborations between gaming worlds and other sectors? And how can we build a more playful and creative way forward for us all in the future?

The Tinderbox Playaway Games Festival will explore  these questions and much more. There are lots of events in the programme but of particular interest from the point of view of health and wellbeing are:

• On the 22nd of February we start off with a Key Note presentation How Games Can Make a Better World by Jane McGonigal.
  Jane McGonigal, PhD, Director of Game Research + Development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California. She is the author of two New York Times bestselling books: Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World and SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully. Her TED talks on how games can make a better world have more than 15 million views. She has advised companies including Disney, Mattel, Nintendo, Riot Games, Activision and EA on how to create games that build real skills and help players develop emotional and social strengths they can use in their everyday lives. She is also the inventor of SuperBetter, a game that has helped more than a million players recover from symptoms of depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and traumatic brain injury.

• On the 23rd of February we explore Gaming for Health, Education & Wellbeing.
  What can games do for education and wellbeing? Join leading industry experts Dr Carla Brown (Game Doctor), Elena Höge (Yaldi Games), Clare Duffy (Civic Digits Theatre Company), and Max Scott-Slade (Glitchers) discussing their experience in gamifying learning methods for the development and wellbeing of children & families, as well as games for supporting health, with Brian Baglow of the Scottish Games Network.

• On the 4th of March we have Games & Empathy Mini-Talks
  A series of short talks from specialist game designers about cultivating empathy and improving accessibility in games design. 

 

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